A known printing apparatus comprises a support body for supporting a substrate and a print unit for printing an image on the substrate, when placed on the support body. The print unit may comprise a carriage unit and a print head assembly, the carriage being movably arranged for moving the print head assembly relative to the support body. The print head assembly faces the support body in printing operation and is arranged for applying a marking material on the substrate based on the image to be printed. The printing apparatus further comprises a control unit arranged for controlling the carriage unit to move over the support body for positioning the image on the substrate, when the substrate has been placed on the support body.
The support body comprises an assembly of registration pins, which are embedded inside the support body at a fixed position on the support body, i.e. a corner of the support body, to register a substrate in a predetermined position. The assembly of registration pins is arranged for registering the substrate in the predetermined position of the support body, when being brought into a registering state. The registering state of the assembly of registering pins is a protruding state from the support body, so to provide a contact to the substrate for registering.
The assembly of registration pins comprises a first set of registration pins and a second set of registration pins, the first set of registration pins being arranged along a first linear line which is substantially perpendicular to the second set of registration pins arranged along a second linear line. The assembly of registration pins is positioned for registering a substrate having two edges arranged perpendicular to each other, such as a rectangular substrate.
In this apparatus the position to register the substrate is fixed by the arrangement of the assembly of registration pins. Furthermore, in case more than one substrate fits onto the support body a desire is to register and process multiple substrates on the support body at the same time, wherein each substrate has a position different from one another. Even more, in order to optimize use of the support body a preferred position of the respective substrates depends on the size and shape of the set of multiple substrates. Furthermore, the known fixed assembly of the registration pins does not allow accurate registration and processing of substrates on another position of the support body and/or registration of substrates having deviant shapes.